Working green wood in Barden Chase

Monthly Archives: May 2013

I had to rig up a little shelter in the wildlife/sculpture park at the Dales Countryside Museum, we had regular bouts of hail from the North East, but the small tarp turned it a treat and kept all my tools and me dry all day.
One thing I’d left to finish off (amongst the many others) was drilling and draw boring, following the excellent advice in Peter Folansbee’s book “Make a joint stool from a tree”

The internal bending of the pegs was quite apparent in a couple of the mortice and tenon joints:

I think the finished piece retains the spirit of a shepherd’s chair, even though the very untraditional halving joints on the sub-frame front and sides are untraditional for almost any wooden chair.
Although the later joints (with pegs deliberately angled differently for security) did withstand most admirably the hacking out of the dog-tooth pattern (thanks Peter F) on the front frieze. (Spot the wooden nail unshortened).The whole project just leaves me wanting to add lavish 17th century carving to any flat surface, and to make more m&t joints.

And finally a quick tip for beginners. NEVER make a pencil out of a tree nail in a project requiring 20 pegs – you will always have difficulty finding your pencil.